Dr. Zoltán Kálmán Váczy, Vice-Rector General of Eszterházy Károly Catholic University, presented winning the Erasmus+ applications launched in the autumn at a press conference, followed by the professional leaders of the international projects.
The 250-year-old Eszterházy Károly Catholic University is proud of its heritage and, as an innovative, 21st century institution, it has a strategic task to respond to the challenges of the present age, said the Vice-Rector of the University. Kálmán Váczy Zoltán PhD. explained that the institution’s educational activities are based on the university’s long tradition, but at the same time have a modern approach and include many innovative elements that are forward-looking.
– In our international partnerships, it is also fundamental that we seek answers to questions and set goals that are both theoretically and practically relevant and can be used effectively, so that we can continue to provide high quality higher education in response to the needs of the economy. The existence and continuous development of well-functioning cross-border links is essential for the university to provide young people with the up-to-date practical training that the labour market demands,” he said.
It was said that one of the key activities of the Erasmus+ programme is to support joint initiatives in the framework of international cooperation. These initiatives contribute to improving the quality of education and training in Europe and in the country, strengthening the partnership networks of the participating institutions and increasing the internationalisation of their activities.
– Since 2018, 16 projects have been awarded, for a total of €779 942 for the EFCC. Four projects were successfully completed in previous years and four this year. From this academic year onwards, 8 projects are being implemented in our institution, which are linked to the projects won in 2023, 4 projects are in which we are involved as consortium leader and 1 as consortium partner, with a total of €518 788 for EKCU in the 8 projects underway,” said the Vice-Rector.
He spoke about the MINED (Methods for Inspiring Non-formal Education on Decarbonisation 2023-1-HU01-KA220-SCH-000162070) ERASMUS+ project, which focuses on climate awareness and sustainability, as well as on preserving the mining heritage of the region. The project aims to create a non-formal education package aimed at raising the awareness of primary school students aged 7-14 years, while providing teachers with a methodological toolkit. The novelty of the project lies in its target area, which is the coal regions (coal regions are defined as those territorial units where coal extraction/coal-based energy production takes place and where, due to their activities, greater efforts will be made to achieve climate neutrality objectives). In Hungary, the counties of Heves and Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén form the Northern Hungarian coal region.)
Three primary schools are taking part in the pilot of the awareness-raising programme, with 300 students per school for the 5-month programme. Finally, 20-20 students from the primary schools will represent their six-month programme in a joint summer camp in Greece, where they will share what they have learned and prepare a joint project with students from other institutions. The project involves several primary schools, vocational training centres and educational organisations from Greece, Germany, Bulgaria and Romania as partners.
Mária Dávid PhD, Director of the Institute of Special Education, emphasized in the context of the DITTE (Developing innovative teacher training methods for inclusion and equal access in education 2023-1-HU01-KA220-HED-000165378) project: ‘with Slovak and Greek partners, the aim is to develop teacher training materials, including for children with special educational needs, that meet the new challenges of inclusive co-education and provide practical support for teachers working with children with atypical development and their parents.
During the 3 years of the project, the consortium’s experts will develop two curricula for teacher training in international cooperation. One will be on professional skills development and the other on individual pedagogical guidance. Both curricula will be accompanied by a student workbook, a teacher’s guide, learning support videos and online applications. Practical testing of the curricula will be carried out in all three countries. Firstly in an international student training course, and then in university courses in the partner countries.
The project will have its own website, where the developed learning materials will be posted in five languages (English, Hungarian, Slovak, Greek and Romanian).
Rita Domjánné Nyizsalovszki PhD, Head of the Touristic Department, said that the project GreeTEA (Improving the educational background of Green Tourism in higher Education by developing Alternative educational materials and learning opportunities 2023-1-HU01-KA220-HED-000156471) aims to contribute to the fight against climate change by creating teaching materials, courses and an e-learning platform that will provide knowledge for more sustainable tourism, especially for future professionals in the tourism sector. He explained that the work with Finnish, Croatian and Portuguese partners will also include the creation of an e-learning platform on green tourism. He stressed that each country has also involved so-called associate partners, who can share their experience in sustainable product development by showcasing their good practices.
Hegyi Ádám Hegyi, Director of the Estate, presented the project WINOVATE (“Non Alcoholic Wine as a vehicle of Innovation and Value for Agri-food Training and Education” 2023-1-HU01-KA210-VET-000151814). According to him, the objective of the project is to educate younger generations about non-alcoholic wines and beverages. Together with Greek and Italian partners, the project will develop curricula for students in vocational training in agriculture and gastronomy, and will require participants to develop relevant business models. He pointed out that the university is also a wine producer and that although non-alcoholic wines do not necessarily fit into the wine culture of the winery, this innovative topic is an important part of the sector and should be addressed as a research and educational institution.
The AiRobo (Artificial Intelligence based Robotics 2023-1-RO01-KA220-HED-000152418) project was presented by Dr. Gábor Kusper, Associate Professor at the Department of Computer Science. The aim is to provide robotics training to the faculty of the five universities involved (led by the Western University of Timisoara) in order to increase the attractiveness of the institutions and the courses they offer. They have also undertaken to produce a textbook to help other universities to teach robotics.
Source: uni-eszterhazy.hu
Photo by: Adri Nagy